By Leslie Albrecht
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
UPPER WEST SIDE — The first week of kindergarten strikes terror in the hearts of some 5-year-old children, but at least one Upper West Side school, new students will only have to endure a single hour in the classroom before heading off to a four-day break.
A late Labor Day and early Rosh Hashanah mean New York City's school children start the school year Wednesday, then don't go back to school until Monday. Students have off Thursday and Friday to celebrate the Jewish holiday.
At P.S. 87 on West 78th Street, the awkward scheduling means kindergartners will attend only 60 minutes of school in their first week.
"It makes no sense whatsoever and it's a little bit disrespectful of what children's needs are," said Mark Diller, chair of Community Board 7's youth and education committee.
Schools usually ease children into kindergarten by having students start with a short day and build up to longer days, Diller said. The truncated schedule will make that transition bumpier, he said.
"Doing (the first day) on Wednesday and then letting them go until Monday, you've built nothing and wasted everybody's time," Diller said. "It's unfair for very small children to do that because it's a little frightening."
P.S. 87 and Department of Education officials did not immediately respond to calls for comment.
Marcy Drogin, the mother of five-year-old kindergartner Max, called the schedule "incredibly distracting and absurd."
She said she would have preferred a Monday Sept. 13 start to the school week, especially because many families will also take off next Friday for Yom Kippur.
Rachel Laiserin, co-president of P.S. 87 Parents Association, says she knows several families who are skipping the first day of school altogether.
"It seems that whole (first) day has to be kind of done over," Laiserin said.
As for her own new kindergartner, 5-year-old Joshua, he's not the nervous type, so the strange schedule hasn't created any extra anxiety, Laiserin said.
In fact, he's been teasing his older brother, who will be attending a full day from 8:30 a.m. to 3:20 p.m.
"He thinks it's funny," Laiserin said. "He goes, 'ha ha, I only have to go for an hour!'"
